Using New Google Webmaster Tools Features to Benefit SEO

31st August 2012 Simon Steed

If you are interested in SEO why not give us a call on 0161 200 8150 for a free no obligation consultation or email us at seo@simonantony.co.uk

Keeping you up to date on the very latest SEO and search engine news, here is a roundup of some recent developments, how this could shape your website traffic and how you can stay ahead of the competition by making use of these technologies.

New Webmaster Tools Features To Help SEO

This month, Google added a new feature that will alert users if there is a sudden change in their websites clicks or impressions. An 'impression' is when your website appears in someone's search results page (SERPS) without getting clicked. Both of these statistics are important aspects of SEO and will naturally change when you alter your website. Being notified when a big change occurs could be a great way to identify key factors that influence how much traffic you get and allow you to respond to these changes!

It might be that you added a page or section to your website that turned out to be surprisingly popular. If this happens, it is worth considering how you might further develop your site in line with your SEO, to draw even more traffic from that type of audience. Equally, it's worth knowing if one of your pages traffic suddenly drops off altogether, which might indicate a problem people have accessing that particular page.

Sometimes these statistics change due to external factors - and having this early detection system allows website owners to take advantage of sudden changes in search trends themselves. Perhaps this sudden shift could be the result of news (either good or bad!) that affects either your company's products, brand or industry? In these cases, it's worth asking how this might benefit you. What do these people want and how do we best give it to them? Using Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics together will give you even more insight into these searches and formulate your SEO response. Would it be worth adding a brief message to your homepage and including a link to page dealing exclusively with this topic for instance? Doing this (and shouting it out on social media sites such as Twitter) can be a great way to boost your rankings for these trending searches and allow your website to ride the crest of this sudden flurry of interest.

Testing Connectivity

In the last few days, Google have also added a detailed error repot breakdown that will help webmasters identify any connectivity problems Google had while accessing their site. This is particularly helpful, as not everyone will necessarily experience the same problem at the same time. For example, your website might seem fine for you, but to others it may be unavailable. If a website seems offline to a search engine, this will have a negative impact on rankings and SEO. Provided the website is restored within a week or two this effect will be temporary, but tools like this offer a nice quick way to test and avoid any disruption.

If you are interested in knowing more about SEO and how you could be getting the most from your website, contact Stockport based SEO specialists Simon Antony on 0161 300 8150 to discuss how we can get your website working for you, or send us an email at: seo@simonantony.co.uk